Did I Succeed in Redeeming the Villain Today? - Chapter 49

Chapter 49: She Belongs to Me Now

The crystal-blue prompt box floated in the dim environment, the countdown numbers jumping one by one.

Wind blew through the cracks in the window, mixing raised dust with the metallic scent of blood in the corridor, giving the moment an eerie feeling of the apocalypse arriving.

Mu Qiuyu looked at Lu Ning with a gaze of indifference, seemingly unfazed by this punishment. But the kitten in her arms was far from calm. Lu Ning felt she must be a jinx incarnate. How was it that her mouth was never right about the good things, but hit the mark on every bad thing?

The countdown clicked to zero.

Despite the nearby sounds of Li Xiang explaining the situation to the police, Lu Ning felt as though her ears had gone silent, unable to hear anything.

“Host, how do you feel?” Lu Ning looked up at Mu Qiuyu with concern, terrified that she would have some violent reaction.

Mu Qiuyu remained unperturbed. Hearing Lu Ning’s concern, she simply lowered her head to look at her hand. Her fingers were flexible and agile; there was a slight, dense numbness at the tips, but she could still control them enough to close her fist.

The system punishment was nothing more than this.

Demonstrating this, Mu Qiuyu calmly signaled to Lu Ning: “I’m fine.”

“That’s good.”

“!”

Just as Lu Ning breathed a sigh of relief, Mu Qiuyu’s expression suddenly shifted. Her pitch-black pupils constricted violently the moment her voice fell, the dilated centers looking as if they were about to crack.

Mu Qiuyu raised her hand to clutch her chest, feeling as if a sword had pierced straight through her heart.

“Hos—”

It turned out that sound transmitted faster than images. Before Lu Ning’s unfinished word reached her ears, Mu Qiuyu’s vision had already plunged into darkness. And her sense of touch departed even earlier—so early that by the time she clutched her chest, she could barely feel anything at all.

Drip. Drip.

The sound of water droplets echoed in the silent environment, yet the dry ground did not become damp.

Mu Qiuyu consciously opened her eyes, but before her was a darkness so absolute she couldn’t tell if she had lost her sight. Even a system punishment shouldn’t harm the host’s physical body. She raised her hand, trying to distinguish it; after barely making out the outline of her fingers, she became more certain of the words the system had told her in her previous life.

However, this darkness made it impossible to see the surroundings. Mu Qiuyu stood in place, analyzing rationally, certain that this place was the punishment the system had mentioned.

Was it the “little black room” punishment commonly used in old prisons? Because one cannot sense the passage of time, people generate fear, even madness. Many prisoners, unable to endure such punishment, would either choose suicide or become obedient thereafter.

Mu Qiuyu knew exactly what the system wanted. But… fear?

She scanned the boundless darkness, her eyes showing not a hint of terror. In fact, those eyes hidden in the gloom, nearly merging with the blackness, even held a faint trace of excitement.

No one is without fear, and Mu Qiuyu was no exception. However, if this system punishment used local materials—if it materialized the psychological trauma she had just shared with Lu Ning and filled this space with disemboweled kittens—she would actually quite admire the system’s creativity.

Thinking this, Mu Qiuyu began to walk, unhurriedly moving through the darkness. The infinite blackness constantly spat out her silhouette, only to slowly swallow it again. She kept her hands behind her back, devoid of any defensive posture. She was genuinely interested to see if she would encounter the things she feared in this place.

But it was so quiet. The ground, neither hard nor soft, swallowed the sound of her footsteps mouthful by mouthful; it was so silent she couldn’t even hear her own breathing.

Mu Qiuyu walked in the darkness for a long time without encountering anything frightening. The sound of water droplets surrounded her like a timer, or a countdown.

Drip.

After the last drop of water hit the floor, Mu Qiuyu felt as if she had reached the edge of the world. She saw light in the distant darkness, a thin white line extending at the end of her vision, the halo staining the horizon with a layer of white film.

The interesting part had arrived.

Mu Qiuyu raised an eyebrow, walking toward it with a gaze that seemed to be critiquing the system’s design. To her surprise, she saw an extremely familiar figure within the white light.

“You’re so slow.”

A slightly complaining voice rang out leisurely. The person in the white light turned toward Mu Qiuyu without haste.

The boundary between darkness and light was like a mirror. On the other side of that mirror, a person who looked exactly like Mu Qiuyu was gazing at her gently. Her slender arms were curled in a dignified and elegant manner, cradling a cat.

It was a long-haired black cat that looked utterly out of place against the white background, curled up obediently and allowing the “other” Mu Qiuyu to stroke it.

In an instant, Mu Qiuyu felt as if her eyes had been stung. She looked in disbelief at the face identical to her own, and at that patch of black that should have belonged to her.

“Who are you?” Mu Qiuyu stared coldly at the person talking to her, her gaze full of wariness and hostility.

“I’m Mu Qiuyu,” the other her replied with a smile, a blade hidden within her submissive gaze. “The Mu Qiuyu who is more likable and more easily accepted by the world.”

“But the fact is, I am the one living in the real world,” Mu Qiuyu countered calmly, knowing this was a system punishment.

“Do you really think you’re living in the real world? Aren’t you already dead?” The other her tilted her head and asked back, her candid gaze clearer than a child’s.

Mu Qiuyu was struck by this look, her entire being jolting. The system knew this? Impossible. How could the system know? That would be a major procedural error. If the system knew, how could it have allowed her to be reborn?

Then who was this person? Why did she know her secrets?

“Ha.”

Seeing Mu Qiuyu’s expression, the “other her” laughed. Cradling the cat in her arms, her voice was laced with a mix of mockery and desolation: “You really are so easy to fool. No wonder she is always worried about you.”

Mu Qiuyu hadn’t expected those words to be a trap designed by this person. She originally intended to ignore her, but upon hearing the second half of the sentence, her stance became alert: “Which ‘she’?”

“You forgot,” the other Mu Qiuyu announced proudly. “So she can only be mine.”

Saying this, the Mu Qiuyu on the other side lowered her head to tenderly stroke the cat. The black furball let out a comfortable cry, kneading its little paws against her chest. Mu Qiuyu knew these expressions and movements all too well.

This was Lu Ning.

The crystal-blue eyes weren’t obvious in the white light, but Mu Qiuyu could not be mistaken.

A fence-sitter. A total fence-sitter!

“Lu Ling, why are you over there!” Mu Qiuyu shouted angrily at Lu Ning.

“Meow~” The kitten seemed unable to hear Mu Qiuyu’s reprimand, wagging its beautiful large tail and acting spoiled in the other girl’s arms.

That was the tail Mu Qiuyu had meticulously cared for; the three-strand braid hidden in the fur was even something she had braided with one hand while bored in class. Under this eyesore of a scene, Mu Qiuyu discovered something she found hard to believe.

—She could no longer understand Lu Ning’s words.

But the other her could.

“Hungry? Shall I make you some French fries?”

“Meow~” The kitten called out delicately. Besides responding to that Mu Qiuyu, it seemed to say something else.

Mu Qiuyu saw the other her turn halfway, looking ready to leave. “Okay, okay, let’s go then.”

But the conversation wasn’t over. How could it end like this? How could Mu Qiuyu allow this other her to leave after saying a bunch of cryptic nonsense without explaining anything?

She reached her hand toward the white light in front of her to stop her from leaving. “Wait!”

The reason the night could not swallow the white light was that there was a clear boundary between them. The moment Mu Qiuyu reached her hand into the light, the seemingly gentle rays launched a fierce attack. Her hand felt as if it had been splashed with corrosive chemicals; a peeling pain crawled densely along her nerves.

Mu Qiuyu hissed in pain, snapping her hand back. She looked at her perfectly intact hand; the nerves that had been “melted” seemed to have grown back instantly. The unbearable pain she had just experienced felt like a hallucination.

“Want to come over here?”

Noticing Mu Qiuyu’s movement, the one standing in the white light walked back. The tenderness she had shown earlier was completely gone. She looked coldly at Mu Qiuyu, who was clutching her arm and standing alone in the dark world, and asked condescendingly, “Do you deserve it?”

“If you don’t want to get hurt, stay in your world and be a good girl.”

“You will never have her. This isn’t your world.”

The white light felt like a victory cloak, crowning the shoulders of the Mu Qiuyu within it. Mu Qiuyu stood opposite her, staring fixedly at the woman in the hopeless darkness. She should have realized earlier—from the moment this woman mentioned her identity, the person opposite her wasn’t “her” anymore.

“You should have died a long time ago. Didn’t you hear them whispering about you?”

“Look back. At the end of the story, is there anyone left by your side?”

“You wasted your talent, you lost the bright future you could have had, you will always be the one who doesn’t fit in.”

“You wanted to declare that those who follow you prosper and those who oppose you perish; you thought that if you wanted to, you could have the whole world. But you didn’t know what you truly wanted until the day you died.”

The woman’s voice circled her ears, every word of the past being exactly what Mu Qiuyu least wanted to hear. She easily bypassed Mu Qiuyu’s defenses, driving sharp barbs deep into the girl’s chest.

Mu Qiuyu’s head felt bloody; in an instant, it was filled with the final images of her previous life. The water pouring from the bathtub felt like rain falling backward, drenching all her memories. Lost data, partners who had turned against her, sycophants who had quickly changed direction. Even the “pitiful” couple who showed her mercy, and the traitor she had trusted implicitly.

Mu Qiuyu sat in an expensive chair, appearing so noble. She was arrogant and paranoid, wearing a crown and a cloak, possessing everything in the world, feared by all, invincible.

In reality, she was a hollow shell. She had long since lost her original intent, reduced to a servant of greed. To the point where, at the end, she had forgotten why she started all of it.

“Do you know who the ‘she’ I’m talking about is?”

Asking back, the woman approached the barrier between her and Mu Qiuyu. It was as if she wanted Mu Qiuyu to see more clearly the triumphant smile blooming at the corner of her eyes.

“Stop thinking. You will never remember, because back then, you fed her to me with your own hands.”

In an instant, Mu Qiuyu felt as if she had been stepped into the dirt by the woman opposite her. Her crowded yet empty memory could find not a single piece of information regarding that “she.”

The black cat’s tail flicked back and forth. Mu Qiuyu’s gaze shifted uncontrollably to the black cat curled up obediently in the other woman’s arms, acting intimate and flattering.

The girl’s pupils were red enough to drip blood.

That was her cat. That was her person!

Possessiveness expanded by the tens of thousands in Mu Qiuyu’s heart, rapid and leaving her no room to distinguish. The sharp white light cut across the girl’s eyes, but she didn’t care at all. With a surge of ruthlessness, she thrust her arm through once more.

Pain was stripping her flesh away. Fragile nerves felt as if they were being yanked out. Mu Qiuyu’s hand did not hesitate for a second, moving with swift precision. Before the person opposite could react, she lunged and gripped her neck. “…Die.”

Veins bulged on the girl’s thin arm; the veins on the hand of the woman stroking the cat bulged similarly.

“Die!”

Mu Qiuyu hissed the words, not hesitating to thrust her other hand through as well.

“Cough… cough… Hos—Host…”

At the same time the sharp pain hit, the sound of a struggling cough reached Mu Qiuyu’s ears. Mu Qiuyu, whose emotions were in total collapse, felt as if she had woken from a nightmare and snapped her eyes open.

What was in her line of sight was no longer the piercing white light, but a soft glow illuminating an unfamiliar hotel environment. In her hands was a fair, delicate neck. That slender neck was currently pulled tight because of her unrestrained force.

Mu Qiuyu’s strength was far too great; the person being strangled could not break free and was coughing uncontrollably. Her shoulder-length hair was damp with sweat, clinging messily to her face. Those eyes, which faintly revealed a hint of blue, were covered in a film of mist, and the teardrops seeping out clung to her lashes, blurring into a bloodshot red.

The ruthlessness in Mu Qiuyu’s eyes receded into confusion in an instant. She looked at this face she knew so well and murmured: “Lu… Ling?”

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